Friday 21 November 2014

Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 4



Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig


A Young Bird's trip to help the Spoon-billed Sandpiper


As a young Bangladeshi birder, I am going to Bangladesh in February 2015 to take part in Spoon-billed Sandpiper surveys on Sonadia Island. I will also be meeting local villagers and am really excited about my trip.


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Sylhet, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by Helena Craig


My love of waders (Shorebirds)


As I said in my blog post Waders and Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 2, I have a love of waders (shorebirds), that I get from my Dad.

My blog post from March 2014, Saving Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 1, included interviews from Sayam U Chowdhury (Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project) Project and Nigel Jarrett (WWT):



Sayam U Chowdhury
Photograph courtesy of and copyright WWT

World Shorebirds Day


World shorebirds Day, 6th September of each year, has been raising money for Spoon-billed Sandpiper and have chosen it as their Shorebird of the Year 2014:


Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper


“Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper: an update on the conservation programme” 


By Dr Nigel Clark (BTO), Debbie Pain (WWT) and Rhys Green (Conservation Science Group), British Birds, August 2014 edition (Vol 107 439-496), sets out the up-to-date positions.


In my last blog post Saving the Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 3, I wrote about some of the current positions set out in this paper: 

I will now set out a couple more:


Raising Awareness and promoting education


In 2012 “Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands” won the vote for $100,000 from the Disney Foundation which was great. Also children and adults across the Spoon-billed Sandpiper flyway are being taught about Spoon-billed Sandpiper. It’s important that these education programmes do not stop; otherwise locals may lose interest in Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

In Bangladesh, there was a one year awareness campaign including a photo exhibition, films on the work being done in Bangladesh and Russia, folk songs and dramas on the topic with former hunters also visiting schools.



Children during an education programme on Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of WWT Slimbridge


Helping the population recover

In my blog post Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 1, Nigel Jarrett spoke about “headstarting” where eggs were taken from the nest, incubated and newly fledged chicks released back into the wild after about 23 days. 


Spoon-billed Sandpiper WWT
Photograph courtesy of and copyright WWT



In 2011 a conservation breeding population was started at WWT in Slimbridge. In the first year, chicks were reared and then brought back to the UK. The following year, eggs were brought over and chicks born here. They were taken from the nest early, so that in many cases the parents had a second clutch. This is something that I wrote about in Part 1 and now there are 14 birds in captivity there. It was amazing for me to see these birds in 2012 and know that they were a significant proportion of the total Spoon-billed Sandpiper


Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks at WWT Slimbridge, Oct 2012
Photograph taken (without  flash) by Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig


This year, breeding aviaries were build that looked like Spoon-billed Sandpiper breeding site in the Russian Tundra. Unfortunately, none of them bred this year but there is lots of hope for 2015.

The fantastic news from Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is that the first headstarted bird, a female, returned to the Russian breeding grounds this summer and bred successfully.   


Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Russian Tundra
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project


Interview with Dr Deborah Pain, Director of Conservation Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT)



Dr Debbie Pain. WWT
Photograph courtesy of and copyright WWT



How many Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks did WWT Slimbridge bring back following the breeding season in 2011?

Thirteen (13) four month old juvenile spoon-billed sandpipers arrived at WWT Slimbridge on 11 November 2011.


How many eggs were brought back in 2012 and how many of these hatched?

Twenty (20) eggs arrived at Slimbridge at 10am on 5 July 2012 – after a monumental eight day journey from Meinypil’gyno! The first egg hatched only 6 hours after arrival and so began a nine day, 24 hours a day vigil as the eggs hatched. All 18 viable eggs hatched and 17 healthy Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks were raised. 



Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks at WWT Slimbridge, Oct 2012
Photograph taken (without  flash) by Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig



How many Spoon-billed Sandpiper does WWT now have? What is the percentage that has survived? What is the most common cause of death?

We have 25 Spoon-billed sandpipers at Slimbridge: 11 from 2011 (9 males and 2 females) and 14 from 2012 (7 male and 7 females). As we have lost only a few birds over these 3 years there isn’t really a most common cause of death. We certainly hope it will stay that way!



Who from WWT, if anyone, was involved in the Spoon-billed Sandpiper “headstarting” programme in the Russian for 2014? What was their involvement and how successful was this?

WWT’s aviculturist Roland Digby led on all of the in-the-field avicultural activities of the 2014 headstarting expedition. He oversaw egg collection, incubation, hatching, rearing, releasing and post-release monitoring the birds. The 2014 head-starting project was successful beyond all expectations. Thirty eggs (30) were collected and of the 29 eggs (97%) which were viable, 27 (93%) hatched and 26 chicks were reared to release. Each bird was uniquely marked on the right leg with a white leg-flag bearing an individual double digit (letter and number) code. At least 24 flagged birds were known to have migrated and three birds have since been seen on migratory staging sites in Western Kamchatka, Russia; Rudong County, Jiangsu province, China; and Yuboo-Island, Seochon-Goon, Chungchongnam-Do, South Korea. 



On Roland’s birthday (18 June) this year, the female spoon-billed Sandpiper Lime Green 8 was discovered approximately 15km from Meinypil’gyno. This was a bird Roland had reared and released in the 2012 headstarting trial (2012 was the first year that we attempted this). She went on to lay a clutch of three eggs of which one chick was reared - the first F1 offspring of the project! The re-sightings and the breeding success of Lime Green 8 demonstrate great potential of headstarting to boost the wild population. 





Roland Digby WWT
Photograph courtesy of and copyright WWT



What steps were taken in relation to the 2014 Spoon-billed Sandpiper captive-breeding programme at WWT Slimbridge and which projects funded this?

In spring 2014, birds that had been living at WWT Slimbridge as a wintering flock were separated into single pairs, trios (two males with one female, and one male with two females) and multiple pairs. These were accommodated in breeding aviaries of different sizes, each carefully landscaped with low growing turf and sedum and small freshwater pools to resemble as closely as possible the birds’ natural breeding habitat. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project has been funded by a large number of organisations and individuals and we are extremely grateful to all of them –please see here for more information: Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.com. This project could not be done without the commitment and support of so many people and organisations.


Why do you think the Spoon-billed Sandpiper captive-breeding programme wasn’t successful in 2014 and do you think the chances are better for 2015?

Single pairs in particular showed lots of encouraging signs of breeding – from dawn until dusk throughout May males performed song-flight displays and made multiple nest scrapes. However, no eggs were laid. We cannot be sure why the birds did not breed but there are several factors that we are exploring. These relate to photoperiod, the unusually high ambient temperatures that we had this year and the proximity of displaying birds which may have unsettled pairs. We are finding ways of dealing with these environmental factors and others ahead of the 2015 breeding season. However, it is also possible that females were just not quite ready to breed. Most of our females were 2 years old this summer which is the earliest you would expect them to attempt to breed, and in some other bird species females in captivity delay first breeding by a year for unknown reasons.


Thank you to Dr Deborah Pain for making the time to be interviewed, particularly just before speaking at the Oriental Bird Club AGM and sharing the fantastic work of WWT in relation to Spoon-billed Sandpiper.



A Young Conservationist's Conclusion



I think that saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is really important but continues to be difficult. More wader species could easily become extinct like the Slender-billed Curlew and Eskimo Curlew, so we have to do everything we can even if that means lots of money and effort across lots of countries. 

Although there are good signs that headstarting and the captive breeding programme with the release into the wild of chicks is likely to succeed, they will only help the survival of Spoon-billed Sandpiper with the protection of the birds from habitat loss and hunting. For this reason, there is an urgent need to find the missing stop over points, wintering grounds and breeding grounds so that these and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper that visit can be protected.



Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project





About the writer



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig




Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker.    She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world.  She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015.  Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter



















Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 3



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Sylhet, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

A Young Birder's trip to help the Spoon-billed Sandpiper



As a young Bangladesh birder, I am looking forward to going to Bangladesh in February 2015 to take part in Spoon-billed Sandpiper survey work on Sonadia Island.  Also, I will be meeting local villagers and want to be able to understand the issues better.  I hope to talk about what I see on my trip.


Villagers being talked to on Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page



It is really important to save the Spoon-billed Sandpiper from extinction and so lots of organisations are helping under The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force.  The project is difficult because Spoon-billed Sandpiper breeds in Russia, migrating 8,000 km through China and Thailand before wintering in Bangladesh and Burma.


My love of Waders (Shorebirds)


In my last post Waders and Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 2 I explained about having a real interest and love of waders (shorebirds), that I get from my Dad.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Baz Scampion

In March, I wrote a post called Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 1, interviewing Sayam U Chowdhury from the Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project and Nigel Jarrett from the Wildlfowl and Wetland Trust’s (WWT) Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project.




Nigel Jarrett, Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig, Helena Craig
and Sayam U Chowdhury at WWT Slimbridge

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig



World Shorebirds Day



This is an organisation raising money for Spoon-billed Sandpiper through its World Shorebirds Day, each 6th September. They have chosen the Spoon-billed Sandpiper as their Shorebird of the Year 2014. 


“Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper: an update on the conservation programme” 


By Dr Nigel Clark (BTO), Dr Deborah Pain (WWT) and Professor Rhys Green (Conservation Science Group), British Birds, August 2014 edition (Vol 107 439-496), sets out the up-to-date positions:


Finding Spoon-billed Sandpipers


In 2011, it was estimated that if nothing was done, within a couple of years, the number of pairs worldwide of Spoon-billed Sandpiper would be down to 50. The most important known breeding site was at Meinypil’gyno on the Chukotka coast in Arctic Russia, where there were 11 pairs in 2013. The remoteness of this place makes it hard to get to but keeps the birds well protected. There have been lots of effort to find other breeding sites, but only one with a few pairs has been found. The fact that no further sites have been found either at old sites or places that look suitable on satellite pictures means that probably the range of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper has got smaller, which is bad news.



Spoon-billed Sandpiper in summer plumage, Russian Tundra
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page


Having good and safe places to stop over during their migration is really important. That’s why it was terrible when their main stop over site at Saemangeum, South Korea was destroyed in 2006. Before that, it had been used by 200 birds. After much searching, another site was found in Rudong, China, north of Shanghai where 140 moulting adults birds were seen in 2013. In October 2014 a survey found that the number of birds at 3 sites in China was up to 183. This is now the most important stop over site for both spring and autumn. 

They think that there must be another stop over site further north in Russia, but one has not been found yet. This is a gap, as no one knows if their northern stop over point is impacting on Spoon-billed Sandpiper survival.

The most important wintering sites are Mottoma and Nan Thar in Myanmar and Sonadia Island in Bangladesh which have half of the wintering Spoon-billed Sandpiper. More wintering sites have been found by the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force but only in small groups between China and Bangladesh. It is good because Spoon-billed Sandpiper are spread across lots of places but bad because there are more places to try and save them.

Hopefully in the future, satellite tagging could be used but not until it has been tested on common waders to make sure there is no problem.


Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Baz Scampion


Habitat Loss: the critical long-term issue


Habitat loss is the major issue for all waders that depend on inter-tidal areas in Asia. These are being destroyed fast with land reclamation schemes across a wide area including in China and Thailand. Sonadia Island is threatened with a deep sea port which would lose all possible wintering grounds in the area. It is only when the importance of these habitats is appreciated and protected will the SBS be protected. The good news is that 10,000 ha of mudflats in Rudong and Mottama Bay are now protected. 




Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page




Hunting: the short-term issue

In the short-term, hunting has been identified as the biggest threat to the survival of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. In China fine nets are often strung up clearly to catch birds. Even where nets are removed, they are easily put back up without any problem. These and the birds that are being poisoned are sold as delicacies, without any action being taken by the authorities. The only way to stop this is for the hunters, middle me, shops and restaurants to be fined.

Conservation groups working in Bangladesh and Myanmar successfully found alternative incomes for hunters.


Sayam u Chowdhury and Chris Craig with local villagers on Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph copyright Chris Craig



Interview with Dr Nigel Clarke, Head of Projects, British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and Chair of the UK Spoon-billed Sandpiper Support Group




Dr Nigel Clarke, BTO
Photograph courtesy of BTO website

Can you explain about the BTO’s involvement in the Spoon-billed Sandpiper project and also your own?


I was approached by Birdlife in 2008 to provide an assessment of whether Spoon-billed Sandpiper numbers were rapidly declining or whether it was an artifact of poor knowledge of an always rare species. I have been involved in many studies of calidrid waders since doing my PhD on wintering Dunlin on the River Severn and so I have a lot of experience of interpreting disparate data sets to obtain a signal. I thought it would be an easy analysis - but nothing could be analysed as there were no standard repeated counts. There were lots of single or multiple observations from sites throughout the flyway. The inescapable conclusion was the population was in free fall and did not have long! As a result of this I was given a sabbatical from BTO to go to the Bay of Martaban in Myanmar to search for Spoon-billed Sandpiper - after that visit I was hooked! The conservation community moved with remarkable speed to try and ensure that Spoon-billed Sandpiper did not end up in the same state as the Slender-billed Curlew (almost certainly) extinct. There was a considerable effort from within the UK so I was asked to Chair the UK Spoon-billed Sandpiper Support Group to ensure that we all worked in a coordinated way and maximised the value of our time, and money. I do this work under the auspices of the BTO (though I do a lot in my own time as well!) as it is important that we use the knowledge and expertise we have in surveying birds in Britain to help species all round the world by developing the science of conservation. 


What is the estimated number of wild Spoon-billed Sandpiper after the 2014 breeding season? Please can you explain the results, taking into account the figure of 100 pairs in 2011?


This is really difficult to answer as the species breeds in some of the most remote places on earth so you can not just count them. We have started individually marking birds on the breeding grounds so we can see what proportion of the wintering population is marked. The 2011 figure was our best estimate and not a survey result and we always knew that it will change. We hope that we will be able to provide a better estimate after this winters survey. My personal view is that the population is not less than 100 pairs and could be higher but there are not lots!! 


In terms of finding further breeding grounds, stop over points in China and further south and wintering sites, are there any further projects planned?



We hope to undertake regular surveys of all known site and try and fill in the gaps. Much of this is done by teams of local ornithologists who all work with the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force to ensure that we get a coordinated picture. I hope to be returning to the Bay of Martaban in January to help with surveys there. It will be interesting to see if the number of waterbirds has increased now that grants have been given to hunters to change their livelihoods. We know that there is one stopover between the Rudong/Dongtai coast in China and the breeding grounds in both spring and autumn from the time it takes them to travel between the two but have no idea where it is. I hope that we will manage to survey likely places soon as we can not do anything to address any threats if we do not know where they are!


Sayam U Chowdhury from the Bangladesh SBS Conservation Project
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig



Would you say that there is still a significant problem with the destruction of inter-tidal areas in Asia by land reclamation schemes as well as hunting for the delicacy food market, both most significant in China? 

Land claim is certainly the biggest long term threat but hunting across its range is an immediate threat. Both must be addressed urgently.


If so, can you explain your views on this and how you think the issues can be successfully tackled in the future?


Hunting is in many ways the easiest one to address. In China it is for the delicacy market but is illegal so there is scope to encourage the authorities to enforce the law. This must be done from inside the country to be successful and needs to go hand in hand with education projects of young and old. In other countries it is the poorest people who hunt birds for protein for their families. In these situations we need to find ways to give them alternatives which will hopefully give them a better standard of living. Land claim is much more difficult to tackle. For centuries it has been happening on a small scale as the shore has accreted from sediment flowing down the rivers. The sediment has now been greatly reduced due to dams up stream and at the same time modern technology means that new seawalls can be put up extremely rapidly and much further out on the intertidal flats than ever before. This leaves no place for the birds, the shellfishery and impacts on the fish nursery grounds. For the developer there is considerable money to be made so it is very attractive for them. There are an increasing number of local people who realise that the environment can not be treated this way if there is going to be somewhere that their children will want to live. Again education is the key in the long term but we have to do all we can to encourage a change in thinking now.


Is there anything else you would like to add?

The speed of action by the conservation movement has been remarkable but we can not let up now. We have a lot of work still to do to ensure that our children have the opportunity to see Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the many other waders that migrate through the East Asian-Australasian flyway.





Children as part of education programme on Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page


Thank you to Dr Clarke for making time to be interviewed and sharing your incredible knowledge about the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project.


Next: Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 4




About the writer



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig




Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker.    She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world.  She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015.  Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter














Wednesday 19 November 2014

Waders and Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 2




Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Baz Scampion

A Young Birder’s view on Waders


I love of waders (shorebirds), which are really special to me. They are my dad, Chris Craig’s, favourite birds and through years of watching and studying them, he is amazing at identifying these extreme migrants. That love and appreciation for waders has rubbed off on me.

Waders migrate huge distances along nine flyways, which are their migratory ranges, from breeding grounds through stop over points to wintering grounds.  The ones that fly along the East-Asian Australasian Flyway are particularly at risk due because of the destruction of sites in Asia.  



Gerard C Boere & David A Stroud 2006


My Wader Guest Blog


In October, I wrote a 3 Part Guest blog post for Wader Quest about my 2012 South American wader search.




Andean Avocet, Junin Lake, Peru
Photograph taken by and copyright young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig


Diademed Sandpiper Plover, Ticlio Bog, Peru
Photograph taken by and copyright Alejandro Tello, Kolibiri Expeditions



Wader Quest have looked for waders around the world, trying to promote them.  They have organised a World Wader Watch weekend for 29th and 30th November 2014. The plan is for as many waders as possible to be recorded around the world. For further information see: 


World Shorebirds Day


An organisation that is raising money for Spoon-billed Sandpiper, is World Shorebirds Day, who has chosen this stunning wader for their Shorebird of the Year 2014. They celebrate waders and those trying to conserve them each year on World Shorebirds Day on the 6th September. Also, the day is to show how important bird surveying is. So that people who don’t normally count birds can improve and that the number of people across the world involved in counting waders increases. 


For 2014 World Shorebirds Day, which was the first ever event, 413 birders sent in their records over 450 sites, although 1000 sites were registered. Most likely, a lot more people took part but didn't send their lists in. Of the 225 waders on the IOC world list, 123 were seen worldwide. USA had the most results recorded at 28, with Britain only having 11 lists sent in.  It would be really great if we can increase the number of people taking part in 2015 and make it the first huge global birding event.



Wintering shorebirds (Dunlin, Little Stint, Kentish Plover) Salinas of Ulcijn, Montenegro
Photograph taken by and copyright Gyorgy Szimuly


Spoon-billed Sandpiper


I wrote a blog post about Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 1 in March 2014: 



Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Sylhet, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


As a young Bangladeshi birder, I am really proud of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the efforts to save this amazing bird from extinction.   It breeds in Russia and winters in Bangladesh and Burma, stopping off in China and Thailand, migrating a massive 8,000 km each way.

The following is a Facebook Page about the conservation project in Bangladesh
Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project



Sayam U Chowdhury, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh March 2011
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig


This wader is a flagship species that lots of organisations are involved with under the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force. 

I have read Mark Carwardine describe the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, in an article in the August 2014 BBC Wildlife Magazine, as the Giant Panda of the bird world.  I think what he is saying is that it is just one species amongst 2,445 that are Critically Endangered, but with its cute bill, it has all the publicity and money?  However, this comparison does not take into account that all endangered wader species along the same flyway will benefit from the conservation work.  For example, Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a species of the inter-tidal wetlands and so if their habitat is protected, it will help other birds living in the same habitat.  Also, stopping hunting of Spoon-billed Sandpiper in an area will also stop the hunting of all birds at that place.



Spoon-billed Sandpiper in summer plumage, Russia
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page



In Saving Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 1, I wrote about “headstarting” where eggs were taken from the nest, incubated and newly fledged chicks released back into the wild after about 23 days.  The fantastic news is that the first headstarted female returned to the Russian breeding grounds this summer and bred successfully.   You can read about this in the following website: 
http://www.saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com/



Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Baz Scampion



My trip to help Spoon-billed Sandpiper

I think that saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is really important as we do not want any more wader species to become extinct in the same way as Slender-billed Curlew and Eskimo Curlew.

I am going to Bangladesh in February 2015 to take part in Spoon-billed Sandpiper survey work on Sonadia Island, a major wintering site. Also, I will be meeting villagers on the island including ex-hunters and school children who have been part of the education programme.   I am really excited about this and hope to be able to understand the issues better.


Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page


Working with children to educate them about Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Bangladesh
Photograph courtesy of Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project Facebook Page


Next: Saving Spoon-billed Sandpiper Part 3



About the writer



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig




Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker.    She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world.  She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015.  Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter